Wednesday, July 9, 2008

#52 Darius Dewberry, LB6-3, 236, Fort Valley GA (Peach County HS / Hargrave Military), Jr.Dewberry was one of the more highly recruited defensive players in the Southeast coming out of high school, selecting the Dawgs over scholarship offers from Auburn, Florida, and Tennessee. After spending a year at Hargrave Military in Virginia, Darius re-upped with the Dawgs and headed toward Athens. He played in 11 games in his first season at UGA, providing depth on defense (he even logged one start), and playing a good bit of special teams. As a sophomore, he started the season as the starter at Sam LB, eventually making way for Akeem Dent toward the end of the season. His numbers for 2007: 24 tackles and a sack. This is a player with a good deal of ability, that just needs to have the light turn on to start showing his full potential.Depth Chart Analysis: Dew will once again battle with Dent for the starting spot at SLB, but most believe he'll begin the season as the 2nd stringer. There's no doubt he'll see a good bit of playing time, especially if he's fully healed from the nagging hamstring. He also has experience at Will, although that seems to be UGA's most loaded LB spot with Rennie Curran, Darryl Gamble and AkeemHebron all holding down the fort. There was talk after Marcus Washington's injury that the coaches might look at a number of guys (including Dew) to train in the middle.